


A Study of Reading Habits

by Prochytes



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-29
Updated: 2011-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-18 19:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prochytes/pseuds/Prochytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fan of Isaac Mendez makes a discovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study of Reading Habits

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from a poem by Philip Larkin. No significant spoilers. Originally written for consci_fan_mo on LJ in 2008.

The first Tuesday in the month was always a good day.

True, it was sometimes only on the day after that he could inspect the delivery. He travelled a lot, because of work, and the hours were a bitch. But the anticipation would still be building throughout the Tuesday, and that just made the final pay-off all the sweeter. The moment when it whispered out of its packaging, slight and glossy and glorious against the bulky protective layers – like those wafers of smoked salmon they sell interleaved with grease-proof paper. People who weren’t aficionados never really understood how much of the experience was about the textures.

Even in his head, that sounded entirely too porno. He shook himself out of his reverie, and looked down at his latest acquisition. Mint condition. Just published, by the Helix Press. _9 th Wonders! _Four-colour passport to a little piece of sequential artistic heaven.

“I’m still surprised you’ve gone on reading those.”

The Friend Who Doesn’t Really Get It, despite the best efforts of both sides, goes with the territory, and cannot reasonably be avoided. He looked up.

“It’s good to get away from real-world responsibilities every once in a while. And comics are kind of like my paper memory. My life in serial form. My issues in issues.”

“Truly?”

“Uh-huh. First day at High School, I wore a black armband in memory of Superman. And the Gotham earthquake coincided with the time the Earth first moved for me, if you catch my tectonic drift…”

“ _Way_ too much information, but I take your point.” She sat down and peered over his shoulder. “Don’t you find them a bit two-dimensional?”

“Two-dimensional works for me. It’s not like I’m King of the Depth Perception these days. But, as it happens, this one – it’s by a guy named Isaac Mendez - is kind of a genre subversion. They all have powers, but no costumes. And get this: one of the central characters is an artist called Isaac who’s making a comic strip about people with superpowers.”

“Right…”

“‘Not since Grant Morrison’s run on _Animal Man_ has this critic seen a bolder act of authorial insertion’.”

“You realize that last sentence might as well have been in Sumerian? Sumerian might actually have been an improvement….”

“…And some of what happens is really cool. Take a look at this bit of the Hiro and Ando arc.”

She scanned the panels, and frowned.

“That wouldn’t happen in real life. Guy carrying a mediaeval weapon around in broad daylight in NYC? Never gonna happen.”

“There’s a good in-universe justification…”

“I mean, local police forces _totally_ freak out when we do that. Remember that trouble the Swiss Guard gave you? And it wasn’t even a particularly big halberd.”

“It must be conceded that the Long Arm of the Law is globally averse to the Long Pole-Arm of Great Justice.”

“Hell, yeah. Willow got really tired of having to work her ‘these are not the _D &D _munitions you are looking for’ mo-jo every time we were pulled over. The next time the Vatican want a nest of Pistophage Demons cleared from the Sistine Chapel, they can do it themselves.”

“Where is Willow, anyway?”

“On a spirit walk. She’s consulting the great bearded augur of Northampton about the upcoming eclipse. All the lesser seers are saying it holds no occult significance. Willow says BS, and I agree. Eclipses _always_ bode; it’s part of the package. Umbra; Penumbra; Bode. Non-negotiable.”

“Cool. Give me a heads-up when we have more concrete intel. Now, this guy is one of my favourites.” He pointed at a panel. A grim-visaged man, blank white squares in place of eyes, stared back. “Doesn’t have any powers himself, but goes toe to toe with the Specials, all the same.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I’ve always thought so.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” She smiled, and rose. “The real world can spare you for an hour or two. I’ll let you know when Willow gets in.”

“Thanks.” He flipped a page. “I’m sure we’ll find that the answer’s just staring us in… the…” He looked again at the splash panel , and swallowed. “Buffy?”

“Yes, Xander?”

“You mentioned an eclipse…”

  


FINIS

 


End file.
